When I launched this inquiry project I knew I wanted to explore education ecosystems. As a classroom teacher I felt the growing pressure on educators everywhere to "do all and be all" for our students. As we continue to live through a pandemic, our students have social and emotional needs on a scale never seen before. We also understand new ways to help every student succeed and we have the opportunity to focus on the whole child.
Curiosity
As a start, I followed my curiosity to understand the basics about ecosystems. Of course I had learned about ecosystems throughout my primary and secondary education. My last classroom experience with ecosystems was in an environmental science class at community college. My professor urged me to switch my major to environmental studies - a possibility I had never imagined. I saw myself as a writer, a researcher and a communicator, not a scientist. That teacher saw me in a new light and led me to see myself in that new light too. I try to help my students see possibilities in this same way and I hope the idea sticks with them as it has stuck with me.
Now that I've visited nearly 50 Greek schools and categorized over 160 strategies for creating belonging and welcome, I've mapped the ecosystem here. 
A welcoming environment
Just like an ecosystem in nature, there is an environment essential to sustaining this ecosystem: spaces that are welcome, values that impact the actions and opportunities within a school community, and opportunities to care for your self and for others to create a mindfully-caring way of being.
Interaction of components
Scientists see ecosystems as containing organisms that interact and abiotic components like air and water.
An organism is "a complex structure of interdependent and subordinate elements" according to the dictionary. The complex structures in the belonging ecosystem focus on individuals connected through supportive networks, finding ways to be leaders, and learning in community. Mentorship and connection create belonging.
Healing community beyond the school door
We know that the environment in which our learners thrive or struggle is more than the the space they enter at the school door. Recognizing this reality an ecosystem must include the components of individual and group storytelling and story building. Opportunities must also exist for meaning-making and thinking about the future. These components allow the school community to imagine ways to rebuild and strengthen the community beyond that school door. What constitutes the community depends on the context of the school, be it rural, urban, online, private, public, etc. 
Curious lifelong learners
The final elements of the ecosystem recognize that the goal of education is for students to leave school feeling curious about the world and confident that they can play an active role as citizens, leaders, and innovators. Belonging is just as important when learners move into the larger world and the ecosystem equips them with tools for success as lifelong learners who know how to collaborate and as global citizens who seek out diverse perspectives. As teachers are some of the most impactful role models in a child's life their care, connection and belonging is essential to a healthy ecosystem. Ensuring they feel connected builds their resilience and ensures that they have the energy to inspire, facilitate, and lead learners into the future.

“Education gives us a profound understanding that we are tied together as citizens of the global community, and that our challenges are interconnected.” Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General

As I move to the next stage of my inquiry project in Greece, I've spent the last two weeks researching the final pillar of my framework for an ecosystem of belonging and welcoming. Learning in community and working together to achieve a common goal are essential building blocks of feeling a sense of belonging. 

During my research at over forty schools in Athens, Patras, Crete, Thessaloniki, and Chalkidiki, I've collected strategies Greek educators use to create belonging through collaboration. Students collaborate in classrooms and schools collaborate across international borders. 

My process as I catalog these strategies is to synthesize and simplify so any educator can utilize, adapt or be inspired. In my process, creating infographics is an essential step to boil complex ideas down into a digestible product.

If we want to build ecosystems of belonging where all members of the learning community feel connected and supported, we can look to the power of storytelling to ensure they feel heard and understood.
Storytelling is a concept that has been widely studied across many disciplines from information science to civic participation. Early in my Fulbright inquiry, I spoke to artist Eleni Glinou about meaning-making and the power of storytelling for self-reflection. We also spoke about the generational trauma throughout Greek history and the impact of that trauma on society.
It is impossible to live in Greece and not feel the power of storytelling. From the Greek myths to Homer's epic Odyssey and the heroes of the 1821 revolution, these stories and characters come alive here. Furthermore, the national curriculum values the narrative of ancient Greece as the birthplace of democracy. In 2022 Greek teachers face the challenge of making meaning not of ancient history but of a post-pandemic world. Schools are performing the invisible role of educators everywhere: healing, repairing, and strengthening their communities.
Why healing? In 2020 Froma Walsh described the ways families are multi-stressed. Two years later her list is still so relevant: "Loss, tragic death, threatened loss, loss of physical contact with families and social networks, job loss, uncertain financial security and livelihood, loss of their old way of life, threatened loss of hopes and dreams for the future, a loss of a sense of normalcy, shattered assumptions about life," ambiguity, uncertainty, and depression
But is healing this trauma the job of education? The answer lies in belonging. Neither teachers nor students can feel like they belong when they are in pain, grieving, or anxious about an uncertain future. A mindset shift is needed to help facilitate community healing. We have all experienced some kind of loss and pandemic life is now the defining moment of our students’ lives. Fortunately, Walsh reminds us that a holistic approach is possible. Our western view is solution-focused. We hope for an “aha” moment or program that can solve a problem with a clear solution but “loss is not a problem to solve” (Walsh, 2020).
What role can schools play in healing?  We cannot ask any teacher who is not trained in therapy and psychology to do this work alone. It is not the role of the teacher to be a therapist but we can apply some concepts: 

1. “Grieving is not in synch.” All children experienced some kind of pandemic loss. How they express it or experience the loss will vary by culture, family, and other factors. Be prepared to be tolerant of these differences.
2. Weaving mindset. Think about balancing how we tell stories of uncertainty, collectively process what that uncertainty means, and model how to look forward. Adapting to what we lost isn’t about “getting over it” or “bouncing back.” It is about looking forward while weaving in acceptance of our loss.
3. Helplessness and confusion may be universal childhood experiences because of the pandemic, but we can help children heal by telling stories of resilience. Greek students learn many stories of resilience and around the world this theme is universal. Through storytelling, we can transform our students' memories of helplessness and confusion into a resilient mindset. They need explicit support in shifting their thinking from surviving and coping to adapting and finding ways to thrive. In Heraklion, we experienced an earthquake simulator at the Natural History Museum of Crete. Earthquakes cannot be predicted but they are a fact of life in many countries of the Mediterranean region. An EU partnership helped fund this simulator and educational exhibit to help children understand what an earthquake will feel like so they are prepared and can respond with calm and resilience.
4.  Community healing requires us to learn the importance of interdependence. As teachers, we need to rely on each other and we should model for our students how we ask for support.
5. Work with students to be mindful of a positive outlook that points to hope and focuses on possibilities (Walsh, 2020).

Storytelling through sharing builds connection and strengthens community by grounding participants in shared common experiences that foster understanding (Maeder, 2018). Folklorist and poet Richard Stone describes storytelling as expressing who we are and how we fit in the world. Maeder, a sociologist, states that we see our lives in narrative form (2018). Storytelling teaches without preaching (Bedford, 2001). It helps us imagine another time and place. Storytelling is social-based informal learning (Kim & Ball, 2006) that creates critical thinking. Bedford (2001) argues that sharing our stories helps us find “universal in the particular” while Stone brings us back to the healing power of listening. He argues that we have to “listen deeply to find poetry in everyday life,” which grants us a new way to see ourselves, makes us more conscious of beauty, heightens our awareness, and opens us up to new ways of being. 
As I continue my research as a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching recipient, I'm gathering the strategies Greek teachers use to strengthen community through storytelling.
Bedford, Leslie “Storytelling: The Real Work of Museums” in Curator: The Museum Journal. Vol 44, 1, January 2001.
Kim, Y., Ball-Rokeach, S., “Community Storytelling Network Context, and Civic Engagement: A Mulilevel Approach. “ Human Connection Research (2006) 32 p. 411-439
Maeder, C. (2018) The Creative Process. A Case for Meaning-Making. Qualitative Sociology Review. Volume XIV Issue 4.
Stone, R. The healing art of storytelling: A sacred journey of personal discovery. 2005 Authors Choice Press, New York.
Walsh, F. (2020) “Loss and Resilience in the Time of COVID-19: Meaning Making, Hope and Transcendence.” Family Process. Vol 59, no 3. Family Process Institute.

​I am an outsider in Greece. Despite being a teacher I'm out of place in every school I visit. This status allows me to observe welcome and belonging objectively. Teachers are always welcoming. At every school a few students give their full attention to welcoming me. In their wide eyes and big smiles I saw open curiosity. Kind and enthusiastic welcomes are a part of Greek culture.
This week I was challenged with the question "How do you create belonging in a school when the context of the ecosystem is separation and difference?" I visited five schools with large Roma populations while shadowing the Peer2Peer team. This pilot program is part of a national and EU-wide effort to improve educational outcomes for Roma students. Greece has one of the highest drop out rates for Roma children, especially girls. It's easy to see just numbers and data in education, but I won't soon forget what that high drop out rate for Roma girls looks like. We went to three elementary schools and ended at a junior high school. The gymnasium (7-9th grade) is overwhelming dominated by boys. There are a handful of girls in the whole school. They just aren't there. This was a foreign experience and I'm not arrogant enough to hope to explain it beyond a few facts: 

• Roma students - boys and girls - often leave school after age 12 to find work. Poverty is a huge obstacle for Roma communities
• Child marriage is common in Roma communities. Although statistics are not completely accurate as they are underreported, all the Roma people I talked to confirmed this fact.

Ending child marriage globally is one of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals
Educating women is an essential key to pulling so much of the world out of poverty and creating a better future. The work of Peer2Peer partners members of the Roma community as adult mentors and high school mentors with schools that have large Roma populations. Their message is clear- stay in school. You can have a big life outside of your current reality and we are living proof. 

At our first school, whose student body is about 30% Roma the children were curious and inquisitive at recess. My tiny bit of Greek didn't get me very far but team members and the English teacher helped. With gigantic enthusiasm a girl mentioned  that she always wanted to meet someone from America. Some sixth graders were shocked and then giggled when I spoke. My translator revealed that I sounded like the voice on the bus or metro that speaks English. A number of girls gave me hugs. Some came up and asked me questions in Greek that I couldn't always get translated in time, reminding me over and over that I was an outsider.
Joining our three high school students mentors on this day was our adult mentor Petros. His pride in being Roma, especially someone who is Roma but who sees a bright future in education, was palpable.
With kids he is a natural. enthusiastic,  caring and responsive. I asked what led him to continue his education and go to the university. He said that he had a group of friends who were serious about school, so he was too.

The experience between our first school visit and the second was significant.  Dimitris said 296 of 300 students at the next primary school were Roma. Segregated schools aren't legal of course, but non-Roma "prefer private schools." 
Instead.of an overwhelming number of kids (30+) in the first group at this school the class of 6th graders had just 10-12. Only 5 were girls.
As we waited to enter this classroom, I asked the high school mentors why they joined the in the program. They said they like being social and they like school, etc. They want to help.
But when I asked them if they believed in the program they laughed. No! It won't make a difference. Change is very hard. These kids come from families that won't change direction,  etc. 
After observing the program the program director Dimitris explained that their responses were all about the context of THAT school.
Greece has a complicated Roma story. They are self-determined and refuse to be grouped as a minority or really unite themselves with the rest if Europe's Roma. Over 6 dialects of the Romani language are spoken in Greece- at least three at this school. Often the Roma peer mentors couldn't understand students speaking Roma. The Roma language is not written, only spoken. At this school students sometimes leave 6th grade not being able to read or write.  Across the street from the school Dimitris pointed out a temporary structure that was the size of a small house but looked like maybe a garage structure made of tarps. This is a home. Education struggles take on a new context when a family doesn't have running water or electricity. "How can they read or do homework at home when it is dark at 5 in winter?" Dimitris asks. 
The children were quiet at the start and only one student wanted to read a question pulled from the bag of questions. Soon it became clear that the children weren't confident in reading. The feeling in the room warmed as Petro and Dimitris  sat next to them and helped them. 
The second part of the program involved conversation over coloring sheets. A boys sitting in front of my carried on a spirited conversation with a high school mentor. He told her that at 18 she should have children. She should have been married by 16 at the latest and by now should have one child at least. Often the conversation seemed argumentative. Apparently although they were both speaking Romani, the dialects were too different  to understand  each other. When the mentor asked the boy why he didn't speak Greek so they could understand  each other, he said "I'm from the north. You're not from here. You don't  need to know." Their neighborhoods are only miles apart.

Day two of shadowing took us to the poorest Roma community in the Athens area - Aspropygos. The community looks temporary but is not. This is an industrial area. Although the skies were blue on the day of our visit the air is often filled with acrid smoke from both industrial operations and Roma men burning the plastic of of electrical wiring to strip the copper. The school was colorful and the classroom we visited was sunny and filled with books. I discovered that the room i actually a library. The school looked similar in size to primary schools that hold about 160 students but the teacher said they have around 350 students and don't have enough room. Fortunately, this meant this group of 2nd and 3rd graders occupied a room with a projector and smart board, art materials and books.
Although the surroundings and context are dismal the joy between student and mentors really shows the power of belonging. Rome mediators joined our group to help with translation and they hugged students, smiled and laughed with them and created a warm family atmosphere in the class. This wasn't boisterous as we'd seen on a previous day. This was a quiet warmth. The main activity of the day involved coloring an easter headband, but clearly the coloring was a conduit for conversation and connection.
Even though we had a large language barrier the students slowly welcomed me with smiles and questions.
Age differences among the students belied the interrupted education that is normal in this area of high poverty.

Our final stop was a middle school, where the success of the program may not have seemed obvious at first, but was clear to me. When they visited the first time, Dimitris tells me, they only had about 15 students and 1 girl. This time over 30 students joined and 6 were girls. Irini, an enthusiastic Romani woman who recently graduated with a B.A. in sociology shared some of the discussion questions she prepared for the group, so as the discussion continued in Greek I at least had a sense of what they were considering:

• What is your dream?
• What is something you'd like to change about your school?
• What is something you like about your school or job?

Although the organizers were not happy that the space was echoey and the discussion faced many starts and stops, my experience as a middle school teacher told me that more participants is a sure sign of success. The addition of more girls was fantastic and the fact that 80% of students participated in answering questions in the discussion is a big win.
I'm very grateful for the opportunity to meet the mentors and students this week. The challenges faced by the Roma community are complex and undoubtedly change will be incremental but this program, with its personal-connection approach is definitely on the right track.

All stories have value and importance, but what stories do we value? What are the officially histories that we feel our children must learn to understand our cultural values?
Social history was a movement in the field of history in the 1960s and 1970s but now 50 years later it is not new but is firmly established as a history as valuable as political, economic or military history.
Along the way historians have applied creativity to establish the validity of new sources as reliable - oral history, music, landscapes and place and the artworks crafted by average people. 
While visiting Chania, a port city on the island of Crete, we visited the Folklore Museum of Agia Marina - Cretan rural house, and were captivated by the deliciously bright colors and serene scenes depicted in embroidery with silk thread. Our museum host was using a machine to create another spirited scene of rural life in Crete.

These colorful works of art tell important stories of community life. Since the post-WWII civil war and dictatorship, poverty has driven many Greeks from their villages to cities. Cultural celebrations every season still abound but they are not the same. Modernity is embraced as Greece chugs into the twenty-first century with the rest of the world.
As has so often happened during my research, I thought of a student whose independent research taught me important lessons about culture and how to value information. Jamilla is Hmong. Her day began before sunrise as her commute by bus from Milwaukee to our school in the suburbs took over 90 minutes each morning and afternoon. She often missed school because she had to stay home to watch cousins or siblings while parents in her family worked. When it came time to complete our National History Day projects she was certain she wanted to tell the story of the Hmong community. Narrowing down such a broad topic for students was always a challenge and we struggled with what part of the history of the Hmong people to tell. In the end, Jamilla stuck to her plan to tell an overview of the Hmong people. This didn't fit the "criteria" for the project but making the exception was essential. Jamilla struggled to find print sources so she conducted an interview with her father that lasted over an hour. Together we found many great sources in Minnesota and today there are even more in Wisconsin. Many featured Hmong story cloth. 

Hmong story cloth is both a vibrant art form and a detailed piece of Hmong culture and history. 
National Geographic features a lesson immigration featuring a Hmong story cloth: ​https://www.nationalgeographic.org/maps/hmong-story-cloth/
Another great resource is available here: https://garlandmag.com/article/hmong-in-usa/
When Afghan refugees started arriving in the United States after the fall of the American-backed government in 2021, many referred to the arrival of Hmong people seeking refugee in the 1970s and 1980s but few of us in Wisconsin understand the history of sacrifice or the richness of Hmong culture.
How do stories share our values?
The act of creation pushes us to make what we value visible. Embroidery takes time, patience, and skill. The artworks here, whether Hmong or Cretan, immortalize community events, transforming memories into images. How much more powerful than curating the perfect Instagram feed! Yet, both our social media images and the handiwork of women from history reflect what is important to us. 

In almost every school I've visited I've had a chance to answer student questions about life in the United States, but the opportunity to ask students my own questions is far more rare. 
In creating an ecosystem of belonging and welcome, it is essential to understand what these words mean to students.
But how do young people put into words what makes them feel like they belong?
In my first dialogue with students - at a lyceum in Nea Smyrni - their first answer was "We don't!" 
Such a response is to be expected. Adolescence is about finding where you belong, choosing your identity and claiming your place in society.
With some careful wait time, I've been able to elicit clearer ideas from students at both the lyceum level and gymnasium level at about four schools. Their answers fall into some basic categories:
1. This is what we do. This is the structure of our life and it's what everyone does.
A student at the Heraklion Model Gymnasium took this idea a step further. "I can't imagine life without this school." Another student chimed in that school is a combination of "learning from and communicating with others."
2. Our teachers make us feel like we belong because they make school fun or interesting. Students often remark that many of their teachers work very hard to make school interesting and relevant even though some of the subjects are rigorous.
3. Teachers show that they care about us. This was an answer I heard frequently at the Perama Vocational High School. Here students mentioned that they really didn't feel like they belonged at a traditional lyceum. After transferring to this Vocational High School, they felt less pressure and felt like their strengths were being developed.
4.Our friends are here and they create belonging. Two elements of the Greek system contribute to this sense of belonging. Students are grouped in cohorts and their classroom is THEIRS. All of their teachers rotate into their classroom throughout the day. Class 3A feels can see their classroom as a "second home" and I've heard this idea in several Greek schools. (This concept seemed very problematic to me from a teacher perspective at first. I think of particularly challenging classes I've had and the sympathy I've felt for studious kids stuck with a group of distracting children who don't take their work as seriously.)
Another key factor is downtime. Classes are about 40 minutes and between each subject students have a 10 minute break. (However, I've seen a 5 minute break later in the day at many schools.) In primary school students run around during this time. Some gymnasium students also run and play a bit but as they get older students spend time talking, eating and just decompressing between classes.

At the Music School of Illion students found my questions about belonging to be kind of silly at first because they all share a love of music! However, as we dig into their answers it's clear that this common interest affects welcome and belonging in less obvious ways.
5. There is less bullying and an overall calmness At the Heraklion Model Gymnasium students also feel a sense of belonging because of shared commitment to academics. Music school students and model school students benefit from a calm environment.
6. Teachers recognize students' talents and abilities which helps them look to the future.

Clearly it is the people and the connections made through community that create belonging for these students, but what makes them feel unwelcome or like they don't belong?
I didn't ask this question but students volunteered a few answers:
1. Stress and anxiety make school an unwelcoming place. Greek students feel an immense pressure to perform well on the Pan Hellenic Exam during their last year of Lyceum. The coursework is rigorous beginning in the fist year of gymnasium. For Americans, this is seventh grade and as a middle school teacher for ten years it is hard to imagine such a rigorous academic focus at that age.
2. High standards sometimes make students feel like they don't belong. The pressure to choose a path for academic success begins early and is reinforced on many levels. Greek students are stunned to learn that American students don't go to extra classes after the regular school day is over. Parents pay for this private or small group tutoring (frontisiria) and lessons can extend until 10 pm.
3. Bullying. When students ask about American schools they ask about bullying and sadly it is an issue that is pretty much universal. Teachers share their concerns about bullying here in Greece. Few mention solutions but many worry that this problem has gotten worse since the pandemic began.

Student perception is the most essential element of the education ecosystem. If they see strengths in themselves and see their classmates as a community, they build resilience.

I've slept in 7 beds in Greece in just over 150 days. 
Bed 1: A 2nd floor apartment in Chalandri
Bed 2: A 1st floor apartment in a suburb on the fringe of Patras
Bed 3: An odd hotel in Igoumenitsa, a working port town for working people
Bed 4: A sweet family-run hotel in the mountains of the Peloponnese.
Bed 5: A bottom bunk on a ferry to Crete
Bed 6: A loft in a rustic house on the ocean
Bed 7: A 2nd floor apartment in a quiet neighborhood of Heraklion, Crete.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”― Mark Twain
In my view travel is the cure for small-mindedness and its sinister cousin closed-mindedness. For travel begins with curiosity and when you are curious about something, you open your mind. If you approach someone new with curiosity you ask questions with open eyes, open ears, and an open heart. You listen so you can satisfy your curiosity or ask new questions. I've visited schools with many resources and some who appear to have no resources at all but who make almost-miracles happen. I've gained more empathy for students from all walks of life as well as their teachers. Sleeping in a quiet, safe space is not a given for students. Food security is not a given for students. It's almost cliche to say walk in someone's shoes, so maybe it's time to think about swapping pillows. Is your student sleeping in a car? On a friend's couch? In a room they share with several siblings? In a clean room filled with trophies? In a quiet space that is their sanctuary?  
This thought exercise may lead us, as Samuel Clements suggests to a "broad[er]" and more "charitable" view of the children in our schools.

I began my inquiry in Greece with a goal of understanding cultural inclusion, but by keeping my mind open and letting my research forge a new path, I've expanded my scope while also narrowing.​Culturally responsive practices and pedagogy are fairy well known among educators in the United States. Sadly, recent attacks on education have targeted these practices. These attacks arise from ignorance and fear.
Being in Greece while my colleagues in the United States struggle with animosity and dangerous anti-education legislation has given me a new perspective.
We needed spaces in our community where all people feel Welcome and feel a sense of Belonging.
Just as the United States is struggling with LGBTQ+ issues, discussions of race and misunderstanding of immigrants and refugees, Greeks have faced obstacles to building a society that integrates new identities.
I've chronicled teacher behaviors, attitudes and practices that create a welcome atmosphere and foster a sense of belonging. 
I'm using an asset-based approach to bring these practices to a wider audience. 
All children deserve the basic human right of dignity. To feel dignity in your school means that you can be yourself and you feel that you have valued. We cannot stop until this right is guaranteed.